Dylan
The dark powerful wolf standing in front of us looked similar to what I remembered, but also much different. I wasn't sure if it was that my mind had built him up in my thoughts and memories or if there was something wrong with him.
Even though he stood just as tall as Rae did, and there were many, many shiny little scars on his body that were visible as he breathed.
I was in Rae's head right now, but I had no idea what to do in this moment. My mind was trying to figure out how the man named Tristan had gotten away from us so quickly.
Rae was running all out and for a moment, he was just out of our reach, but it was like the moment that he reached the foot of the mountain he vanished into thin air. And not just his physical body, but his scent as well. It was completely gone.
Too confused to really feel anything else, I wasn't paying much attention to what Rae was saying or doing, but I was somewhat aware of who was standing before her.
That wolf has ran through my head so many times now that there is no way that I could ever forget him waking or dreaming.
Earlier when I lost my temper and shifted to chase after Tristan, I was determined to ask him all the questions that were going through my mind, but now, it seemed that the fire that had momentarily been lit inside of me was fizzling out.
If it wasn't obvious by the diminished adrenaline pulsing through Rae, then it was becoming extremely apparent by the doubt that was now creeping in my mind.
"What did I just do? Why did I shift in front of so many people? How far was the patrol? Did they possibly see me? Did Tristan turn back and see Rae trailing him?"
Rae was obviously focused on whatever she was planning on doing with him, but she made sure that she spoke softly to me to try and calm my racing thoughts.
"Calm down little one, there is nothing to fret over just yet."
Right, she was right. I mean we were originally planning on coming out to the coast to try shifting in front of Lecia and her brothers so that they could meet Rae and see if their wolves could link with her also.
Plus, it's not like Vit and Noel haven't already seen Rae on the rare times that they were with Alpha Rogan and I had to shift in front of them.
That only left Eren and Tristan. While I was worried about Tristan seeing Rae, especially since I knew nothing about him, where he came from, and why he was there for me, I was the one who ended up running after him.
Leaving Eren for last was easy. There was no reason why I couldn't shift in front of him. He's seen Rae before, and even stood before her in the woods and spoke to her so there was really no need to hide from him either.
Still perplexed with Tristan's vanishing act, I tried to force my mind to think logically and figure out what could have happened to him.
Rae snarled at the wolf in front of us and I watched as he quickly reacted to her, but not in the way that I had expected him.
The tall proud wolf quickly lowered his head towards her as a clear sign of submission and I could feel how much she enjoyed his response.
As he moved, Rae gnashed her teeth and I could feel how much she wished to lunge forward and attack him. To just bite down and rip and tear at him, but she held herself back.
When Rae spoke to Eren's wolf I couldn't help but stop myself from thinking about anything else and give my full attention to them. This was honestly the perfect opportunity to see if they could link with us just like Lecia had.
If I was in my human form, I would have been holding my breath as I anxiously waited for confirmation, but since we were in Rae's form right now, that was something I didn't have to worry about.
Rae on the other hand seemed just as curious. Head still cocked to the side, Rae watched him in anticipation of his response both to her question and to her attempting to link with him.
Eren's wolf, who was still standing a few paces away from Rae, seemed to have frozen in place. I stared at him because for a moment I was sure that he was the one who wasn't breathing and I watched to see if there was a rise and fall of his chest.
Suddenly, Eren's wolf shook his head back and forth quickly as if it was trying to shake something off of itself and then if that wasn't odd enough, he sat on his haunches and lowered his head.
"Do you think he heard you, or do you think something is wrong with him," I asked Rae in confusion.
I mean there was really no way of knowing if he did or didn't unless he either linked back with Rae or he shifted and we were able to speak to Eren.
Though I was honestly considering that this might have to happen, there were two conflicting thoughts running through my head about that.
One I really did not want to see Eren's stupid face right now. I didn't want to see him pretend to be sorry and sad about what happened at school.
The other was that if he did shift right now, he would again have to stand in front of us completely naked. While the thought was unnerving, it was also a little appealing.
Ugh, what was wrong with me, I thought more to myself then anything, and was about to get lost in thought again when I heard.
"Did you just speak? How? How is possible for you to speak to me like this?"
Whoa, the voice that filled my ears was so, well captivating, that I urged Rae to speak to him again so that we could hear it.
Rae was still standing, but I felt her desire to walk over to the wolf. Why, I truly didn't know why, but I could feel the desire building inside of her.
"Answer my question, Eren," Rae said softly, and this time Eren's wolf reacted immediately.
The dark brown wolf quickly stood up, and then kneeled down before us. Watching through Rae's eyes was the best thing that could happen right now, because I would not have known how to react in this situation.
"No, my human would never hurt Dylan or you and my name is Dane, you can call me Dane if you would like. May I ask your name."
Gods, I wished that I could hear Rae's thoughts right now. I really wanted to know if Dane's voice was having the same kind of effect on her that it was having on me.
Watching this wolf lower himself on the ground before Rae, or us, or whatever was something new, odd, but new and a little exciting if I was being honest.
"Do not lie to me Dane. If your human didn't wish to harm Dylan, then why did he have you follow us out here," Rae asked him firmly.
Thank the Gods that she was able to think logically enough to process this situation and navigate it the way she was. She had every reason to attack Dane and Eren, but was using this time to get information from him.
"No, we did not follow you to harm you, we came to make sure that no harm came to Dylan or to you."
Rae started to slowly pace back and forth in front of Dane, who was still kneeling on the ground, but she was keeping her thoughts hidden from me.
She didn't stop her pacing when she said, "you said that your human would never hurt either Dylan or myself. Are you not aware of the things that he has done to her in the past?"
Dane growled softly and this time didn't answer as quickly as he previously had. His teeth were showing how hard his jaws were clenched as he growled again and again and I realized that he must be talking to Eren.
"Are you trying to figure out how to answer me, or how to lie," Dylan demanded suddenly.
She had stopped walking and now standing much closer to Dane. With so little distance between us now, it was easier to see Dane's scared body.
From here we were able to see that there were both new and old scars on different parts of his body.
Unsure of what could have happened for him to be unable to fully heal from his wounds, I again caught myself feeling bad for him.
When Dane spoke, I forgot about his body, the scars, and even Tristan. All I could think about was if there was a way for us to prove what he had said.
"Eren does not wish for me to tell you this, but he has never wanted to hurt Dylan and has only ever done it because he was forced to."
Looking at Dane, still lowered on the ground. I wanted to go over to him and beat the truth out of him. What was he talking about? Why would he say something like that? Was he only saying this because he was speaking to Rae?
Rae growled and took a step closer to Dane's lowered body. Unsure of what she was thinking, I truly had no idea what she was going to do to him, but I didn't question her.
If there was anyone in this world who knew about all of the things that I have gone through in my life, it would be Rae and I knew that she would do whatever she had to do to protect me, but I was a little afraid of how she would react to this.
"Do you take me for a fool, Dane. How could anyone make him do those things to her, or rather should I be asking who would make him do those things?"
Wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Could there really be someone out there who had been forcing Eren to treat me the way that he did?
No, that couldn't be true. If it was, then why had he acted different with me on those few occasions when it was just the two of us, or when he had come over with the others to my house.
Something didn't make sense and I wasn't sure how to figure it out or who we could even confirm this information with.
Rae and I waited for his response and I could see that Dane seemed to be visibly uncomfortable. He was snapping softly and grinding his teeth and softly growling, and I was almost sure this time that he was talking to Eren.
If, and that is a really big if. If someone was truly manipulating him, how had they done it, and why? What could they honestly get out of this?
"I can not tell you who, but I think that you can see the how."
When Dane spoke to us, my eyes immediately ran over his body and this time I felt Rae slowly observing ever inch of him from tail to nose.
The fact that there was no moonlight didn't help us in being able to completely see Dane' s body, but as was took it in, he said,"This is what we couldn't heal."
I felt a shudder run through Rae and I wished that she would let me in to her thoughts.
Did she believe him, I mean could we belive him? Who could confirm that he was being hurt or abused or forced into doing something like that?
As I continued to think about his words, I thought through his friends and considered who could have that type of control over him without Alpha Rogan knowing or being aware of it.
The moment that I thought his name, I felt Rae stiffen.
No. There's no way that she thinks that he could be in on it, or allow someone else to control, manipulate, and possibly even torture his own nephew.
But the more that I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I felt because I could see Alpha Rogan doing just that.
No one knew the type of person that he truly was underneath the nice clothes and performance that he put on for everyone else to see.
It's true. There was absolutely nothing that went on in this pack that that man didn't know about and with Eren being his nephew, there was no way that he didn't know what was happening to him.
New memories filled my mind, and they were not pleasant. I was recalling all of the times that Alpha Rogan had hurt me for one thing or another even when it wasn't my fault or had nothing to do with me.
Too many things were starting to make sense and intead of helping the situation, it was only making it worse.
Not only was the one person who could probably corroborate this story the last person I wanted to talk to, I wasn't sure what might happen if he found out that I knew about this.
What didn't make sense, besides all of it, was why he would let someone force Eren to do this to me?
There was no benefit that I could think of that anyone could get from harassing me my entire life.
Rae was listening to me, and spoke again to Dane. "Does Rogan know about this?" Rogan? Had she always referred to the alpha by his first name like that, or was it just because of who she was talking to?
Dane spoke so quickly that I could see the frenzy in his eyes "Do not let Dylan ask him anything about this, or Eren, or anything really. She needs to stay as far away from him as she can."
Back up on his feet, Dane was actually shaking as he stood. to his full height. He
seemed to want to say more, but either couldn't or was being told by Eren that he shouldn't.
"Leave," he suddenly yelled so frantically that I wanted Rae to look around the area and see if there was a threat that may be approaching her.
When Rae didn't say anything, he yelled again, and you could see the fear in him. As he stood there, his posture changed as if he was preparing for some type of physical attack.
"Take Dylan far from here. Take her somewhere safe. I do not know why he does the things he does, but I know that he is a calculating man and he must have something planned for her. She will not be safe is she stays here much longer."
A soft whine came from him when he finished speaking, but his words, even though they didn't carry anything in them except concern and warning seemed to anger Rae more than she already was.
I felt so confused because nothing was making much sense. Why would they do these things to me? Nothing made sense, but the fact that even though his voice was beyond soothing, all it did was say things that hurt and made my situation seem worse than it was.
"Do not take me for a fool, your boy knows more than you are saying. How can I be sure that he is not protecting that man? He knows that there is no where that Dylan can be free of him, just like you know the same goes for him, don't you?"
I didn't want to hear this any longer. All I wanted was to go home and pretend like this whole day didn't happen. Half heartedly urging Rae to leave was all that I could muster.
Unable to look at Dane, or the trees, or the sky I just retreated to the parts of my mind that didn't hurt. Rae must have sensed my despair because I felt her opening up her thoughts and emotions to me.
Anger, resentment, fear, and desire were some of what I glimpsed from her and I didn't even care enough to look any further. If there was no life for me, here or anywhere what was the point of my existence.
"Little one," she called out to me, but I didn't want to hear it any more. Without me Rae could stay in this form and leave, she could be done with the hiding and the lies, and this pack.
Everyone would be better off without me. So there was no real point in trying anymore. I just shut it off, I shut it all off and the last thing I remembered before I finally let go was Eren's eyes full of tears, a small grey wolf, and two golden wolves standing right beside him